


You have that Rebel Fire in your eyes

by Leiz



Series: Rebel Fire [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bonding, Friendship, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Katt - Freeform, Mentions of Death, Multi, Naxzela aftermath, War, blade of marmora, broganes, holt siblings, rebel fire, team voltron - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-28 17:01:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15053780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leiz/pseuds/Leiz
Summary: Kolivan’s stare was harsh, and his words unforgiving as he looked down at Keith.“A dead man is a useless man.”“Then how about leaving him with me ?”Keith’s eyes widened upon hearing the familiar voice and recognizing it instantly. He turned his head to see Matt walk to them.“This was in the terms of our agreement, wasn't it ? One member of the Blade of Marmora to accompany me and the Rebel fighters for intel missions and explorations.”Standing small between the leader of the Blade of Marmora and the Rebel Fighters' representative, he didn't know whether to ask Matt if he had gone crazy, or tell him to run.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This starts roughly at the beginning of season 4, not long after Keith left for the Blade of Marmora.

 

 

                “Keith, we don’t have time, come on !”

He could hear Zakki hiss from where he stood at the opened doors of the ship’s bridge, dressed in his Marmora suit and gear. His facial expressions completely hidden behind his mask, but still quite transparent in the tone of his voice. Keith hurried in his frantic typing at the control panels. They had managed to get everything they came for, but this ? Keith needed that extra info he stumbled upon while searching up the maps indicating different Galra bases and routes…

They had infiltrated a Galra ship for information, precisely, information about different key ships and their itineraries. Better know when to strike and at what time, after all. But while searching for information, his eyes scanning different maps, or rather, elaborated lines of travels of quintessence shipments, routes and hubs they used in the past… His attention was caught by some other intriguing data.

 Black markets trafficking, stolen cargo ships loaded with… Nano-thermite. Nano-thermite titanium-boron. Explosives, amongst other weapons and ammunitions sold by smugglers. Transactions done with rebels, and reports on such cases. The Galra had  spies on the black markets, and they also paid good money for information from shopkeepers and smugglers in the dark. They were tracking several rebel fighters with those transactions, putting bounties on them (Keith had only seen reports of bounties that had been collected, which was telling enough...)

“Keith !"

“Coming !” He growled back, eyes scanning the screen with intensity as the maps and coordinates were loading. He couldn’t find anything more precise like names, no matter how hard he had searched in the small time frame allowed. They didn’t have time for that. They almost never had time for more than what was absolutely necessary in their actions, he knew that. But as the motto of the Blade of Marmora went “Knowledge or death” ? Yeah, well Keith was literally applying that now, wasn’t he such a good student ? Can’t say for sure that Kolivan would appreciate the effort though.

_‘Come on, come on…’_ The earthling gritted his teeth as he watched the loading status climb up, up, up… Until finally, the maps and reports were safely copied. He took out the small card out of its port with one swift move of his hand, hurriedly erasing any traces of their swooping around from the history logs, leaving the screen as bare as they had found it.

He could almost feel his partner’s impatience, but before Zakki had the time to add anything, both of them froze as they could hear the upcoming footsteps of Galran sentries.

Zakki and Keith exchanged glances, both silent, barely breathing… They had to get out of there.

Keith moved to where Zakki was by the doors, both of them with their backs against the wall, focusing of the sound of steps coming closer. This was bad… Keith looked around, they had no issue out but that very same door they were hiding behind at the moment… If the sentries decided to come inside, their cover would be blown.

 Suddenly, a thought occurred to Keith just as his fellow Blade reached for his weapon. The sentries that had come out of the room, just before they got inside, had come from the other side of the corridors… They had come from the right, and had marched away to the left. This time the footsteps they heard came from their left… With any luck, this team of sentries would only pass the corridor and not go in the room itself… Maybe. After all, these robots worked on a pattern… Keith breathed deeply, trying to calm his nerves to find a solution.

What would Shiro do in this situation ?

_“…Patience yields focus”_

 

Keith took a big, silent breath. Filling his lungs with air as he closed his eyes. _Think, Keith…_ Just as quietly, he breathed out.

His eyes widened in realization. A **pattern.**

Just as Zakki was about to unsheathe his sword at the danger closing in on them, Keith grabbed his arm to keep him still. The other blade wiped his head around to ask the human what the hell he was doing, but saw him signing with a finger over his mouth to stay silent. Keith leaned even closer to the wall, frowning underneath his mask and closing his eyes as he focused on hearing the steps… One of his hand, flat on the surface of the metallic wall. Keith paid no mind to Zakki’s obvious puzzlement, even with his mask on, while he watched the smaller blade. _Tap, tap, tap, tap_ … His finger softly drummed on the surface of the wall, silent and in time with each step of the sentries. _Tap, tap, tap, tap… Now_.

Keith grabbed Zakki’s arm once again, pulling him toward their only escape route. Just as they exited the corridor, Keith could see the backs of the galran sentries turning around the corner at the end of it, blissfully unaware of two members of the Blade of Marmora making their way out. They used this method, avoiding and hiding just in time before the sentries could spot them, advancing stealthily but surely. Man, was he glad that Shiro had told him about sentries and their patrolling pattern.

On their ride back in one of the Blades’ ship, Keith could finally deactivate his mask as he sat and leaned his head back on the wall, sighing. This went better than expected, all things considered. He knew Kolivan wouldn’t be pleased, he knew that he shouldn’t have let emotions and personal matters take over the mission and yet… He looked down at the small piece in his gloved hand, the small object detaining all the unexpected information he could copy. It could be a clue, a piece of something towards a trail… Even if this wasn’t some sort of ground-breaking revelation, but at least they knew for sure that the Galra had ears listening even among smugglers at the black markets… This small piece of information would be useful. And maybe, just maybe…

Keith allowed his mind to travel back into memories.

 

-

 

“Hey, Shiro was looking for you.”

Keith opened his eyes and looked up. He was lying down, arms behind his head, on the roofs of the Galaxy Garrison. It was in the afternoon, and it was a nice weather to relax outside after training. Matt was standing next to him, bending over just slightly and casting some shade on the younger’s face by blocking the sun.

“I hope you didn’t skip class.” The scientist chuckled good-heartedly, light brown hair softly tickling his face from the breeze. Keith sat up just as the other joined him and plopped down. He frowned, trying to remember…

“Nah, I don’t think I did.” Keith shrugged. His uniform was a bit dishevelled from lying down and unzipping the front of the orange jacket, letting the colour of his black shirt peek through.

“Well, good, he said to come see him after his meeting is over. It didn’t look too urgent, but it seems someone spotted an unidentified object flying around in crazy circles in the desert the other night so…” Keith visibly flinched and grimaced at the words.

“Shiro might have realized that you went to have fun with your hover-bike… Again.” Amber eyes looked at him in amusement as he groaned, with his face in his hand. “But you’re in luck, apparently there’s a gang out there who likes to do these kinds of things.”

Well, at least the Garrison won’t know it’s him…

 Matt yawned and stretched his arms above his head. The raven watched him with an amused tilt of lips and an eyebrow raised.

“Another all-nighter ?”

The older ruffled his messy hair with his left hand, and took his glasses off.

“Yep, second one in a row.” He raised up two fingers in the air in a fake energetic peace sign. He clearly looked too tired for that though. Keith snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Amazing.”

“I know, right. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be taking the napping space.” So saying, Matt actually let himself lean back until he was the one lying down.

“Or you could just go sleep in your dorm ?”

“Too basic for me, sorry.” Keith shook his head at that answer, chuckling. Forearms folded over his bent knees, the younger looked ahead where the head of a spaceship could be seen in the distance.

“The big day is coming soon, huh.”

“Yeah” Matt opened his eyes, golden orbs twinkling as he observed the clear blue sky with a broad smile. “I can’t believe that soon we’ll be up there, in space. How crazy and cool is that ?”

Keith snickered, and turned to look at him. “Well lucky you, you get to visit Kerberos and play with space rocks while I’m the one who gets to stay here and suffer Iverson’s nagging.”

The scientist laughed and elbowed him gently. “Yeah, I’ll take the space rocks over Iverson any day. Good luck by the way !”

Keith elbowed him back as they laughed. Matt extended his hand, fingers stretching to the clouds and the sun.

“Besides…”

  

-

 

Keith was staring at the small chip in his left hand… Frowning when his memory seemed blurr and faint… He could see lips form words and smiles… But all sound just faded from his mind, as if drowned in waves of dark waters… He felt like a weight of _something_ had sunk in the deepest parts of his memories, without knowing what. That time… He remembered Matt telling him something. He knew it wasn’t something revolutionary, no, the nature of their relationship was quite simple, nothing relatively dramatic… But it had been something special in that moment. _…What was it ?_

The human sighed just as the doors slid open to let Zakki appear, he sat down in front of the smaller Blade. He had gone to make a short report to Kolivan. Keith’s fingers closed around the piece in his hand, his gaze rose up to address the other.

“Zakki, you’re going with Kolivan to meet the Paladins later right ?”

The Blade of Marmora and the Paladins of Voltron had agreed to have a meeting that day, and he knew that only Kolivan accompanied with a select few would go to the Castle of Lions.

 Zakki deactivated is mask, looking at Keith fully with a hint of interrogation in his dark irises swimming in yellow. Proportionally, he was much bigger than Keith, but his face looked to be around his age, probably older by a couple of years. The first time they met, Keith could only describe him in his head as someone that looked a bit similar to both Ulaz and Thace. He had Ulaz’ jaw and markings, and ears and eyes looking like Thace’s.

“Yes. Aren’t you coming too ? They were your teammates.”

 “…No.” He didn’t really want to see them now. He felt like, somehow, a part of himself was being strangled around the Paladins, and like a part of his resolve would be shaken up if they did meet now. He had a role to play in this war, they all did. He looked back down at his hand briefly before his eyes were back up to meet Zakki’s.

“Can you give that to them ?” He let the small card fall into his fellow Blade’s bigger hand. “I think the information inside could be useful in the long run.” The galra looked at the chip and carefully put it away in one of his pouches, nodding in understanding.

“I will make sure it gets to them.”

“Thanks.” He gave the bigger man a slight smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Zakki paused to look at him for a moment before he asked.

“Do you have a message you wish to give them ?”

Keith was a bit taken aback by the offer, his head rising almost on instinct. He hadn’t expected it. He smiled, this time to himself.

“No, it’s fine.”

If Zakki had any question on the subject, his expression betrayed nothing as he nodded once more.

True to his words, when he and another Blade followed their leader to the Castle, he delivered the device to the Paladins. As they were wrapping up everything that had needed to be discussed in the meeting, Zakki caught the sight of one of the Paladins scanning the data they had just been given. The green one’s eyes sparkled, as she said that she might have gotten an idea from reading those reports on explosives. She might have a lead on something. The three Blades got ready for departure, Zakki giving them one last look before leaving.

-

 

For a while, Keith forgot about the card, or the blur memory. He barely even realized the time he had already spent working with the Blades, not until Kolivan called him after a mission (one that didn’t cost lives this time…), telling him how they had to share their new lead of information regarding Lotor’s whereabouts. It wasn’t until then that he realized that it had been a long time since he had last seen the Paladins. And as usual, he kept relatively quiet, unless he had to add anything to the conversation occurring mainly between Princess Allura, Shiro and Kolivan. But the fact that they all looked well was reassuring enough. Keith had seen many perish while working as a member of the Blade of Marmora, and he hadn’t even been there that long. Only something that would amount to a couple of months. And even if he was under no delusion that his comrades of Voltron were unaware of the atrocities, and the sacrifices in the war… A great part of him was glad that they were not confronted with the darker sides of it.

Kolivan was about to cut the line after some brief words of salutations (which was more of a curt nod and a “we will keep in contact” from Kolivan than anything), when Pidge interrupted.

“Keith !”

Until then she hadn’t said much, and her head had been kept down most of the discussion. She had seemed hesitant at first before a boost of determination burst through the brown of her eyes, illuminating her whole face as she called for him. Everyone had looked back at her, surprised that she suddenly wished to speak to him, except maybe for Shiro’s knowing smile. Keith turned slightly to give her his full attention, he could see her grin wide and broad.

“I found him. “

His eyes widened just enough to convey his shock.

“I found Matt !”

He took a second or two. Images came to him, of a boy wearing the very same glasses she did now, messy light brown hair around his face and amber eyes, smiling and goofing around… Images from not so long ago, yet from a time that seemed so far away. Slowly,  he returned the smile, not caring about schooling his expression into a neutral mask.

“I knew you would, Pidge.”

If possible, her smile turned brighter. She looked so much like him.

Everyone in the Castle of Lions smiled too, all sincerely glad for Pidge.

It was unfortunate that Matt had to leave the Paladins just before they contacted the Blades, but the opportunity to meet him had increased since he was with the Rebel Fighters. They were bound to meet sooner or later.

Little did they know that it would be sooner rather than later.

 

-

 

 

It was a small planet, one of colours leaning towards oranges and dull greens. The dry weather and sand distantly reminded him of the Galaxy Garrison on Earth.

Matt and a few Rebel Fighters followed captain Olia, going deeper and deeper into the crowded place. It was a maze of people. The planet, despite its small size was a host for huge markets of all types. A hub of sorts. The perfect location if you didn’t want to attract attention.  You only had to meld into the population, that was actually diverse enough that 4 masked individuals didn’t seem too odd. It was a great rendezvous point, not actively controlled by the Galra, but also a troublesome one as they had to look for signs of their informant closely. They had information on an abandoned facility, that might have been used by the Galra, or at least it had been in their shipment routes.

The four of them decided to separate and fan out in search of the informant, keeping in contact through an earpiece communicator.

Dressed thickly and hidden behind their cloaks, they each took off to different streets. Matt passed individuals of all types, the different scents of food, sand and various goods all mixed together (though they were filtered by his mask, but he could still smell just a small hint of it). The market stalls and shops were all quite modest if you wanted to put it nicely. They looked nothing like the more advanced space malls, all the market places of this planet looked like they came straight out of the heroic fantasy movies and games Matt used to loose hours of sleep into, back on Earth.

As he had researched beforehand, and from the small interactions they had had with the locals at their arrival, he had deduced that one of the main reasons why those shops lacked the obvious aesthetics of advanced technology was because they simply weren’t meant to last. Most of the merchants and sellers weren’t from there, they simply came to sell their goods on what would roughly be one season per year. The natives weren’t sedentary people, so they moved around quite a lot and in general depending on the seasons and time of the year, they had their own organized schedule.

The rebel fighter walked through small alleys, distancing himself from the crowd. His eyes had spotted someone who matched the description of the person who had intel on the abandoned facility and its links to the Galra. He followed the man, wearing a red hat and of greyish green skin, small and gaunt, his back was curved forward making him look probably older than he really was. He walked with a slight limp, balancing with two pairs of arms that looked so thin they could break under any kind of pressure.  

They received a lot of supposed intel concerning the Galra and their projects. Some were often fake, traps from bounty hunters, or baits from the Galra themselves… Which is why they always had to be careful, had to double, triple check before any decisions was taken. However there were some rare cases where they couldn’t find anything on the sources, or anything to verify the telling of the person claiming they had intel. When researches didn’t suffice or simply came back null, they had to go investigate themselves. Unfortunately, this was pretty much one of those cases here. And what’s more, the guy had already cancelled once. So this was their second attempt at a meeting. They couldn’t really be blamed for being at least a little more suspicious.

Matt watched closely as the man turned a corner, waiting several seconds before his back broke contact with the wall he had leaned on. As he walked, he took the time to notify the other rebels and captain Olia, giving them his location, and adding that he would verify if this was their informant. Before he could get closer to the man, however, he saw a  quick flash of a dark shadow jump out from a roof on his right. Matt had just enough time to reach for his staff.

Taking a step back as he extended his weapon, he had no time to do much more than block his new opponents’ blade. The silhouette was hooded, significantly smaller than the enemies Matt was used to encounter… _Not a Galra soldier, then._

They both jumped back, gaining momentum to strike again. Matt’s staff swirled around him as he parried his opponent’s attacks… All of which were clearly aimed to hit crucial points of the body. Not to kill by striking a vital part, but just enough that one hit would make sure to render you unable to fight. His opponent’s moves were fast, precise… Their blade cut through air as they crouched to evade Matt’s staff and send a kick flying towards his abdomen. Fortunately, the rebel fighter managed to avoid getting hit. The momentum of their actions pushed their bodies to rotate almost completely, stilling only when each of their weapons clashed together in resistance. The metal of both screeched as they trembled in efforts, pushing against one another, not one of them yielding.

This one was not going to be backing down. Matt would have been amused if this wasn’t such a tricky situation. Face to face, with their respective weapons between them, Matt could finally see the hooded opponent closer… They raised their face, as if challenging him in a show of determination. A mask, but different from the one Matt was wearing… No… His mind was quickly flooded with recognition and possible explanations, they had encountered people wearing those types of masks before-

The hooded person suddenly spoke.

“Who are you ?”

It happened in a second. A very small fraction of a second where his mind stuttered, and hesitation, denial, memories, hope flashed in quick successions inside him. A single second where his hold on the staff loosened just enough that the other could push him back with a swing of their arm.

He could never mistake that voice for any other.

The swordsman took a step closer towards Matt’s unmoving form and as he extended the edge of his blade…

 

“…Keith…?”

 

And suddenly everything froze.

Matt hadn’t noticed he had talked. He hadn’t even fully managed to wrap his mind around the idea… Katie had told him that Keith was fighting in the war too, but… What were the odds of them meeting there in the middle of nowhere ? But at the same time… He  was sure of it. He knew it was him.

He could see his form stiffen in front of him, in shock probably, keeping very still before slowly retracting the blade.

Matt couldn’t move as he watched the dark figure taking a step backwards. He blinked several times before finally, he reached for his mask and took it off. His messy brown hair fell free around his head, his eyes still wide even as he uncovered them for the other to see, waiting for a reaction, or anything really…

Seeing the rebel’s face, his hand holding the blade went almost limp at his side… He let it change to its smaller form, and put it back in its sheath tied at his belt on his lower back. This time, he took a step forward, walking out of the shadow as his hand slid the fabric of his hood back, at the same time deactivating his own mask. Keith looked up, dark hair surrounding his pale face, eyes shining with silent shock and wonder.

_It was him,_ his mind rejoiced. _It was really him._

 

 

 [  R e u n i o n  ]

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hint at those explosives Pidge used to trace the Rebels (and Te-Osh) because why not ?


	2. Chapter 2

 

                There was something entirely surreal about this scene. From the moment he heard his name spoken in a soft voice, a whisper of disbelief. Time felt suddenly heavy and slow.  Whether it was the stutter in his movements, the rise of pressure he could feel in his veins, or the blank page of his mind… All of these he perceived distantly, like an echo from afar. Keith stood impossibly still as he observed the rebel fighter, a rush of memories painting the picture of a boy in orange uniform and goofy smiles. Yet, the colours, so vibrant at first were progressively fading and merging… With the image of a man standing in front of him. Realisation crept up slowly, bright in his eyes, taking root in his mind. 

He stared at him, sandy locks of hair curling around a face with barely seen, scattered freckles that he knew were there on the bridge of his nose, on the curve of his cheekbones… Slightly parted lips, and big amber orbs, eyes that in his memories always looked so calm, bright and full of dreams, always steadily looking straight ahead… The same eyes that now stared right back at him, widened in shock. It all felt so familiar, but also… So different. The thought, at first only somewhere in the back of his mind became even more present when Keith’s eyes stopped on the one scar that hadn’t been there before. 

Seeing Matt after so long, while expecting to meet a lanky guy, barely his height, wide smile on his face with a hand messing with his brown hair in an awkward gesture… And then being reunited with a much taller version of Matt, with broad shoulders, posture strong and standing firm in rebel fighters’ clothes, a certain aura of calm confidence emanating from him... And oh… _Oh_.

His trail of thoughts stuttered as he focused on the other’s eyes once more. He clearly hadn’t been prepared for this turn of event. To say he was taken aback was putting it mildly.

Granted he had never really given much thought on when or how they would meet again, and what would happen... Whatever he had expected or not, it simply wasn’t anything like this. He knew, from the day Pidge told him she had found her big brother, Keith knew they were going to cross path someday. Probably during a meeting with Voltron ? Or for a briefing on some Coalition related mission ? But really, having nearly beheaded his former comrade’s brother was _not_ part of the things he would have expected when he thought of seeing Matt again. But honestly, he probably should have seen this coming in a way…  

 

To say he wasn’t ready would be some vulgar understatement. Really, being a rebel fighter officer and communications specialist meant that all kind of troubles came his way, and he had literally his fair share of assassination attempts and bounty hunters trying to get their hands on him. But getting almost beat up by his friend and almost literally losing his head was… Something new. But if you asked Matt, it was oh so worth it. Seeing Keith in the flesh, right before him was like a punch in the guts. All kinds of memories of Earth, of the Galaxy Garrison, of long nights of stargazing and silly pranks and laughter, of his life before the Kerberos expedition… It all came back to him in a single hit as soon as he was met with the familiar indigo gaze. The piercing eyes now drowned in the remembrance Matt was sure his were reflecting.

They both stood for a whole minute just observing one another, taking in the fact that they were there after such a long time, and all the changes that implied.

Keith could see Matt’s breath hitch just slightly before the older man slowly made his way towards him, a small smile drawing itself on his lips… But his eyes still stared at Keith like he couldn’t quite believe he was there, as if he was waiting for Keith to evaporate into thin air right in front of him.

Keith distantly felt his lips part for words… Both of them prepared to talk, the initial shock fading around them just as Matt reached for him with a hand.

_“Matt ? What’s your status ?”_

The rebel fighter suppressed a sigh, as the crackling static of the communication piece rang in his ear. Keith blinked, understanding flashing in his eyes as he watched him. Matt reached for his earpiece, clearing his throat before he responded, incidentally another dark silhouette appeared right next to Keith, with a lump carried under their arm. They were clearly bigger than his friend from Earth and wore almost the exact same outfit, further confirming his doubts from earlier. _The Blade of Marmora, huh._ Now that he looked more carefully he could see that the lump under their arm was in fact the informant he was chasing just before and had completely forgotten about.

“Captain Olia, I managed to confirm the identity of our man. Also, I met some unexpected guests…”  
  
His gaze drifted back on Keith, locking eyes with him as he spoke in muted words with the other member of the Blade of Marmora.

_“The Blade of Marmora ? I know.”_

Matt raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing. If the captain had known of the presence of the Blades but had refrained from telling them, it meant that they probably weren’t supposed to show themselves. They usually operated in the dark after all. But then, why had they taken action when Matt tried to approach him ? He looked at the unconscious man, still carried like a bag of rice… Most likely, the man had been targeted by a third party, which meant the Blades had no other choice but to actively defend him. They probably thought Matt was one of them. 

He smiled just as Keith finished his conversation with his partner and walked up to him.

“It’s great to see you, Keith… It’s been a while.”  
  
The way Keith’s eyes lit up just slightly, looking at him with a soft smile. He had missed that. 

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too. Sorry about earlier.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised that the first thing you try to do is beating me up, after nearly two years of not seeing each other…“

Matt teased him openly, diffusing the strange air that had been around them for the past minutes. As if on cue, Keith rolled his eyes at him. This was something easier, something familiar.

“Risks of the job, didn’t they put that down in the description ?”  

“Nope, I guess I was scammed.” He popped the ‘p’ for good measure, shrugging and then chuckling as Keith shook his head at him, the smile still on his lips.

Captain Olia gave them a rendezvous point. They decided to regroup in one place to discuss the mission, as  well as the involvement of the Blades. If there really was someone else acting up and trying to get the informant, then there was bound to be much more than what the man had been willing to give them. Something much bigger.

The other blade, Zakki as Keith had introduced him, shifted the unconscious body to carry the man on his back. Admittedly it looked less suspicious than strolling down the streets with a seemingly dead man under one arm…

“We were just supposed to find him and watch him… Attacks weren’t in the plan.” Keith had said to him, in a hushed voice, but face solemn all the same. Matt hummed, amber eyes calculating under the shadow of his hood, lips barely moving.

“A simple information on an abandoned facility… I don’t think it’s that valuable a bargain that anyone would try to go after him.”

The Blade of Marmora had probably caught wind of the intel, and decided to check it out for themselves too. Matt was aware that the Blades were actively investigating Quintessence shipment routes… If they were only ordered to find, identify and watch the man, it was most likely to verify the information, just like the Rebels, but also to be sure that he wasn’t just baiting them. A hidden facility, on a merchant planet… How very convenient. Now, why was it abandoned, and why, if the Galras had been there, was there a very obvious lack of them on this planet…

They walked, close to the shadow, all cloaked with their hoods up. The streets were still bustling, chatters loud, if you wanted to find anyone suspicious, you only had to open your eyes. The planet basically looked like a hub for space pirates and merchants. It was that easy to blend in.

 Matt watched Keith from the corner of his eyes…

“By the way…”

The younger one looked at him, eyebrow arched as to question why Matt was staring at him. The brown haired man turned his face to look at Keith with a serious expression.

“ ‘might just be my impression because it’s been a long time but… Did you shrink ?”

The kick that flew to his shin might have been totally deserved, but it still hurt like hell. It didn’t wipe that smug look and smirk off Matt’s face though. Amusement was clear in his eyes as he watched Keith walk ahead, his steps quite a bit harsher.

Heh, still as fiery as ever.

Matt chuckled as he followed the others.

 

-

 

The distinct noise of pressed keys on a laptop echoed along the metallic walls of the Green Lion hangar as Pidge worked, eyes fixated on her screen. Hunk peered above her shoulder, intrigued by the different codes, and the maps flashing around on a second screen. He was moving boxes of materials, trying albeit in vain to tidy up the space a bit… It really was no exaggeration that the floor of the room was almost impossible to walk on with all the cables, tubes, metal pieces and tools lying around. They had left them all lie around until, finally, Hunk couldn’t take it anymore (he had tripped over that exact same spot 4 times already) and decided that something needed to be done. Like cleaning.

He watched her screen, reading quickly over her work and getting the gist of it. The smaller paladin jumped in her seat when his voice came out next to her.

“You tracing something ?”

The brunette grumbled under her breath, something about having a heart attack, Hunk wasn’t sure. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes to alleviate the fatigue.

“Not exactly tracing, but more like… Recording. Something kept nagging me about the data the Blade of Marmora gave us.”

“The black market routes and the smuggling ?”

“Yup, that. So I decided to look into it. I was stuck on some points because we didn’t have enough information, so I left it alone for a while since we had more urgent things to do.”

The younger girl cleaned the lenses of her glasses before putting them back up on her nose. The ceiling stared back at her as her eyes went from left to right while she recounted the process that had brought her to the current activity, hands moving in the air.

“Like missions, or not dying in space, or saving people, liberating planets, keeping space dictators in check and avoiding their crazy witches… But then I remembered that Matt is actually a communications specialist working for the Rebel forces and who also spied on the Galra Empire for almost two years so-“

“Pidge you’re rambling.” Hunk’s expression hadn’t shifted with the intervention of his words. Hearing her speak on and on about any subject she was absorbed in was becoming quite a routine.

“Right, well… Bottom line is: thanks to my brother’s nerdy brain-“

“You really shouldn’t be talking-“

“I managed to decipher the last bits from the data the Blades gave us and ta-dah!”

Her chair swivelled as she gestured to the second screen showing different coloured lines and dots on the map. It looked pretty similar to the one they created to track Galra fleets movements… Hunk whistled, his eyes quickly going over different locations and information linked to them. He still raised an inquisitive eyebrow to his friend.

“But didn’t the Blades give us maps… ? Why’d you create one more for ?”

“Well, yeah but most parts of them were coded or too vague for us to really understand them” Hunk could practically see the lights shine in her eyes as she continued “But with Matt’s data filling in the blanks…“

“You managed to complete them, and pack it up in one big map.”

“Yep ! It’s not 100% finished, and we still lack intel on some parts but I just thought it would be clearer for us to record what we do know about those shady shipment routes… And add them as we go.”

Hunk hummed, getting a closer look to it. It would be considerably faster to consult that map with precise location and concise information added to it, besides if they needed more in depth reports they could always go read the referenced files that the Blade of Marmora gave them.

A blinking orange dot called for his attention, as it was the only one in that colour and the only one flickering at the moment. He pointed to it.

“What’s this one for ?”

Pidge who had gotten back to typing on her keyboard looked up.

“Oh, that one’s Matt. Well, or roughly where he’s supposed to be at. He told me they would go check out some intel about galran facilities and factories. I added it on a whim, just for a test, but I guess we’ll know if the intel was right or not soon. ”

Thin shoulders shrugged, the teen already immersed back into her work while the yellow paladin read the information available about the planet her brother planned to visit.

“Planet Alkhak, huh, sounds cool. A merchant planet, I wonder how that’d look like, think it’s like the space mall all over ?”

He spoke half to himself as he heard the younger one hum with barely concealed indifference. Something about a certain merchant planet with a lot of sand rang some sort of memory bell however… Big deep brown eyes widened slightly as he raised the question like an off-handed comment.

“Hey, now that I think about it… Isn’t Keith on a mission near the area ?”

Pidge snickered, eyebrow arching but eyes still on her screen. “Huh, what.”

“Yeah, I think that’s what they said last time…Something about a guy giving them intel they needed to verify…”

For several seconds the sound of typing ceased. Both Pidge and Hunk stilled, as if they had arrived to the same conclusion and the silence in the huge room solidified that answer. The light reflected in her glasses flickered as she tipped them higher on the bridge of her nose.

“…Well, I guess they’ll have fun reuniting. Hopefully, without too much screeching.”

Pidge commented flatly, the last part almost under her breath as she went back to her typing, not without the clear beginning of a smirk on her lips. Her comrade bent a bit further to read the reports on said planet, his brows knitting in concern, eyes squinting.

“Yeah, well I hope for them that they don’t stumble across those sandstorms, seems to be somewhat of a speciality of the planet from what I’ve just read…”

The words were mumbled out as one of his hands stroked his chin in consideration before picking up on what Pidge had actually said seconds earlier. His head whipped up and in her direction, his body catching up on the action as he straightened his posture and fully turned to her.

“Wait, wait, wait, so Matt and Keith know each other ? Since when ? I mean- Were they friends ? How did we not know, wait how did you know ? Or rather, well, Matt’s your brother so I guess- But how did you not tell us ?”

The yellow paladin’s words came tumbling one after the other, his facial expressions changing too quickly to process for the girl who only looked at the display from the corner of her eyes. She had only really known for a short while herself, from the long sleepless nights spent talking quietly with Keith. They just talked when they felt like it, or sat in silence.  Those moments were raw, they were moments where she was left vulnerable from fatigue and from missing her family, and she didn’t really think about talking about it with the others. She knew Keith wouldn’t talk about it, and for now she preferred it that way. He was the only one who didn’t try to coddle her, who understood, but who didn’t try to pry, he never asked questions, and just kept her company.

She decided against elaborating on the subject right then.

Finally one of her shoulder rose up and down in a half-hearted shrug.

“Never occurred to me. Don’t worry Hunk, they’ll be fine.”

 

-

 

So they were trapped.

How exactly, Matt wasn’t even sure he knew anymore. But all the same: both Keith and Matt were stuck several levels below ground in the ruins of some abandoned facility, in the cold desert while a sandstorm raged upon them. No big deal.

 

They had managed to meet up with Captain Olia, and the two other rebel fighters, waiting in some hideout for their unconscious informant to wake up to the world of the living. He had indeed been attacked before Matt could approach him. Kolivan had given Zakki and Keith the green light to fully operate with Olia’s team and they all agreed that they needed to go on site and investigate the facility. But now with the knowledge that they might encounter unpleasant surprises on the way. 

When their informant had finally regained consciousness, it had been to the towering and imposing figure of Zakki guarding him. Needless to say, the shrill shriek and the clatter of old wooden boards falling as the man had scrambled away on all six limbs had been far from surprising. However, after chugging down water, grip frail on the pouch even with four, albeit damaged, hands… The man, Khorduh, had proven to be somewhat reserved to talk. Keeping mum through every questions Olia asked… Until Zakki, well over two meters tall and made like a wall of solid muscles, rose up from his seat, hand on the handle of his sword.

“We could always give him some motivation.”

Each word had been said in a calm tone, with their ominous shadow engulfing the smaller man in their dark promises. And, not that Matt had known the blade member for long but he was quite sure that Zakki was a man of few words, and a very intimidating one too. The small man couldn’t have spit the words fast enough to take a breath, and that was basically how they had been given the exact location of the hidden facility. Although he had seemed still reluctant to answer other inquiries…  

In the end they decided to split with Olia and one of the rebel fighters staying back with their ship and the informant, the other fighter was sent to get information from the merchants and shopkeepers, while Keith, Zakki and Matt were to go check out the abandoned facility.

Traveling across the desert was easier when they had detailed coordinates to find the establishment. Sure enough, the old thing was buried deep in the hollow of sand dunes, completely undetected by any kind of radars. The only way to find it was to know where to search precisely. Sneaking in the facility was easy enough with Matt hacking his way into the old security programs.  

Snooping around the corridors, and the different panels of controls on several floors, something was made clear. Matt had frowned as the screens had lit up in front of him, Keith and Zakki not far behind him. The power shouldn’t be still running, if the intel they had was correct, then…

Unfortunately, they had detected the arrival of the sand storm too late, none of them expecting for it to strike so fast. A part of the room they had been in collapsed on them, separating Matt and Keith from Zakki. They fell a level lower, neither of them were severely injured but unfortunately they had no way out. Their only exit had been the very same way they had entered, which was now crushed under piles of rocks and metal. No signal seemed to get in or out, Matt supposed that the collapse had somehow disturbed the magnetic field that surrounded the facility (and had kept it hidden from radars for years).

Their only hope was for Captain Olia and the rest of their team to find them in this mess and get them out before they froze to death, or got crushed by giant falling beams and whole chunks of metal… Keith reassured him that Zakki would find a way to get back to Olia and get backup. Thanks all Hells for that too… The way these walls and ceiling creaked under the violent wind was just not a reassuring sign.

After scanning the room and making sure they weren’t going to run short on air supply (thankfully they didn’t need to worry on that part…), investigating the space they were in, and confirming that they indeed were trapped… They both settled down, sitting on the dusty floor with their backs against a cold wall.

“So… What do you think ?” Matt asked almost tiredly, words left hanging in the air. He could see Keith barely shift on his left, head tilting backwards to rest against the wall as he observed a distant point through what was left of the ceiling.

“A hidden facility, allegedly galran, in the middle of the desert, and a sandstorm conveniently showing up when we try to investigate it… It’s clear that this place has been left to rust for a long time, and yet…”

At this point, Matt knew Keith had come to the same conclusion he had.

“And yet, the power is still up somehow, but most of the records are all gone, like…”

“Like they were just erased before we dropped by to pay a visit.” Amber eyes appeared anything but surprised, gaze almost dull as Keith turned his head to him, nodding slightly. Deep cobalt eyes observed him calmly.

“You saw this coming.” Not a question, an affirmation. As if the younger man knew that Matt had already anticipated most of the events, or well…

“Not the storm.” They both sniggered at that. “Just as you said, this thing is old enough to crumble below our feet, literally, the power source and the backup power should have long dried up by now… Add to that the fact that this facility is half buried in a giant hole in this desert makes it…”

Keith sighed. “The perfect place for a trap, huh.”

Not that they weren’t all prepared for that particular scenario to unfold in the first place. It were the circumstances that were truly odd. Matt sighed.

“Somebody tried to silence him. Which explains the attempt to contact the Rebel forces, and why he cancelled it the first time…”

Keith grunted in acknowledgement, Khorduh was fishy as well. Too many questions arose from this mission alone.

Matt scanned the data they could extract before being surprised by the storm. At first nothing had come up, as if the last entries were conveniently deleted… But when he managed to dig deeper in… His eyes skimmed through the information on his small tablet. Not enough to count as proper evidence, but just enough to arise suspicions… Starting with the first thing Matt had found odd.

This place was conveniently built on a merchant planet, meaning that anything going in or out could have easily slipped right under the radars. Seeing the people here, anyone could come and go as they pleased. It would be easy enough to hide a facility and its activities like this one. But if it really was a galran facility… Why was there no Galra control ? Not even a trace of their occupation, just an empty, rusty facility ? The Galra Empire wasn’t known for just up and leaving like that.

 “Everyone just assumed that it was galran, but if it wasn’t…”

Keith looked at him, eyes even darker in the barely lit room. Matt continued reading, information piling up, things starting to fall into place in his head.

“This facility was dealing with Quintessence conversion… And they were selling it to the Galra…”

He could feel his friend’s eyes widen slightly at his next words.

“But also to the Resistance forces…”

The data stopped there for this entry, the several others seemed to detain coordinates. Which heavily hinted that there were more than one in this case.

 “The reason why Khorduh was attacked… Is because this is not a galra facility.”

The room, though silent, felt heavy with the tense atmosphere.

They were passing for a Galra facility, all the while smuggling and selling weapons, advanced technologies, but most of all Quintessence…  There were way too many theories as to why and how, but for now they had nothing more than that. They had to investigate further on the subject, but... Matt closed his eyes for several seconds, trying to slow down in his thinking, lest he lost himself in it again. He breathed out, blinking amber eyes open to look at Keith by his side.  

 “And you, you had your doubts too, right ? What gave it away?”

Keith’s gaze was focused on the dark ceiling and crumbled shapes of metal. Expression hardening in remembrance, a frown slipped on his pale face. He observed as the words left the younger man’s lips in the heavy silence.

“His hands.” Matt blinked. “His hands were pretty injured, and trembling too much for it to be only from shock… I’m no specialist of alien anatomy… But half of his nails were missing.”

Another silence. Matt stared straight ahead of them.

“They say that if they don’t talk after getting the first ones ripped off, then there’s no use in continuing the interrogation… If he was only missing one, we could suppose that he talked right after… But if half of them were missing...”

Matt could feel Keith’s eyes on him, intense and heavy as they waited for him to pursue. The older chose not to.

 

Their only source of light was a small glowing orange orb Matt had gotten out of one of his pouches. The general atmosphere was broody at best, both of their minds lost in reflexion about the last information they acquired, trying to process everything they discovered and what it could mean. This simple investigation had escalated to a much larger scale. Matt closed his eyes, and decided to alleviate the tension in the room.

He turned to Keith once more, a teasing smirk on his lips as he knew the younger watched him from the corner of his eyes. “So… ‘Drop-out’ eh ?”

Keith groaned, his head falling back against the wall. “Which one told you ?”

“Lance.”

“Of course it was Lance…” He grunted while Matt’s smirk widened.

“He seemed quite happy about it too.”

“I’m sure he was…”

The younger man sounded jaded, clear deadpan in his words and on his face. Matt chuckled. If they had to wait several hours in there, might as well take the opportunity to catch up.

“I had… What they call a discipline issue.”

The rebel officer’s amber eyes widened.

“What did you do that made the Galaxy Garrison kick their star pilot out ?”

A beat before the answer broke through the silence.

“…I punched Commander Iverson in the face.”

“… You _what._ ”

If Matt had been drinking or doing anything really, he was pretty sure he would have choked right there. He would have laughed if it wasn’t for Keith’s voice ringing once more, shrugging in casual indifference at punching their former commanding officer in the face.

“Well, I talked back, said he was a blind idiot happily fed with bullshits, and _then_ I punched him.”

Matt exhaled a long drown out breathe he hadn’t known he had kept in until then.

“Just… Wow. I don’t even know if I’m more surprised to be surprised or… Did you break his nose ?”

“Nah.” Keith shrugged once again, as if the whole ordeal had been completely ordinary. “But I gave him a black eye ?”

At this point Matt didn’t know what was real anymore, his hand rested against his forehead and his eyes as he laughed in disbelief.

“ _You’re amazing, holy shit_ …”

Clearing his throat he waited for the moment to pass before he asked. “What did he say ?”

He was witness of the crinkle around Keith’s eyes and nose, as if the younger remembered a sour unpleasant taste.

“Uh, well except that I was going to get my ass kicked out-“

“No, for you to hit him. There must be a reason for you to go berserk on him.”

Once more, Keith’s eyes seemed to plunge into abyss…

“…They said it was a pilot error.” At the quiet admission, the golden orbs observing the blade member softened. “He said it was Shiro’s fault that…”

Keith took a deeper breath, brows knit together. “But I knew they were covering everything up and blaming it on him.”

Knowing Shiro’s illness, and how reluctant the upper brass of the Garrison had been against him going to the Kerberos mission… It was indeed an easy target to pin the blame on, swipe it all under the proverbial carpet and write it off as pilot error. It was that act of turning a blind eye at their own ignorance that drove his little sister to go search for their father and himself in space, it was what drove Keith out of the Garrison too after the loss of his only family…

Matt took in the appearance of the person who was once a friend, a teenage boy who couldn’t quite find a place for himself, who dreamt and longed for the endless sky and its freedom… Now sitting right next to him, in all his strong yet battered form, posture falsely relaxed, muscles and reflexes sharpened from days, months of battling and clinging to life. Of surviving through suffering, and loss… Much like himself. Keith might have looked stronger, his eyes still held that unfaltering light… But also the weight of an exhausted, haunted soul.

A gloved hand dropped on Keith’s shoulder, dissipating the turbulent thoughts enveloping the deep violet eyes.

“Well, I guess Iverson is in for quite a surprise when we get back to Earth.” Matt’s scheming smirk was somehow contagious. It brought back memories of pulling pranks and long discussions in the night on the roof of some old observatory. Keith smiled back at him.

 Earth felt so far behind them… But so close like this.

 

-

 

They spent what could be described as a short night in the abandoned facility before Zakki and Captain Olia found them. Khorduh had vanished without a sign as soon as Zakki informed them of the situation in the desert. They decided that further and more in depth investigation was in order concerning the hidden facilities. Upon closer inspection and decoding of the data Matt managed to get, there were several around the Universe and they might just have to go and check them all. But this was left for another debriefing meeting with Kolivan, for a later date. In the meantime, Voltron had sent word that they might have elaborated a plan to take down Zarkon’s main fleet at once, Zakki and Keith were meant to return to the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters, while Captain Olia and her team were to go back to the Rebel Forces, in order to regroup and prepare for the upcoming battle. Which, for the two earthling friends meant goodbye for now.

Matt’s eyes glided across his orange tablet, reading reports. They were stocking their ships to fly back to Olkarion while Keith and Zakki were almost ready to leave to meet up with Kolivan.

Next to him, Keith was leaning against the Rebel ship as he observed amusedly a merchant eagerly pushing purple fruits into Zakki’s arms. Apparently, while the Blade member had been searching for them, he had helped the man in the desert, and was now victim of a very enthusiastic old man and his family trying to feed them enough for months to come. Funny how random things came his way, for such an intimidating figure, Zakki was easily appreciated no matter where he went. Keith liked to tease him about it when he could. He chuckled in his fist as he watched the old man, looking small and frail, almost drowning in his beard, had enough strength in him to push more food onto Zakki’s awkward form, cackling as the giant Blade almost dropped a fruit.

Matt’s eyes rose up to watch the scene, chuckling in his turn. He pocketed the tablet and turned fully to speak to Keith as he pushed himself from the metal of the ship. Zakki had managed to escape to their ship, bags of food in tow, they were ready to go.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you for the preparations then.”

Keith shrugged with one shoulder, smiling slightly.

“I’m not sure… Zakki and I aren’t dispatched with the team on Olkarion, I think we’ll probably just go directly for Senfama.”

The older nodded, sandy locks tickling his face as a breeze passed them. Keith observed as the warm orange hues of the planet reflected around Matt. He smiled. Some things, though they changed, retained a certain familiarity to them.

“Take care.”

“Yeah, you too, Keith.”

Matt smiled broadly at him, expression warm as he remembered a similar scene from years ago, somewhere on the roofs of an abandoned old observatory back on Earth.

“See you later.”

“Yeah… After Naxzela.”

 

 

-

 

The Naxzela aftermath.

While having confirmed the safety of the Paladins, and stopped the planet from self-destruction, the chaos that was left in the wake of the battle was heavy enough that there was no real relief for anyone. Only the meagre breath of knowing you lived to see another battle, and the stifling pressure of countless deaths more to mourn.

_“We did it…”_

They could hear Voltron exhale through the communication devices…

Aboard the Rebel fighter ship, Captain Olia and the other officers were checking on the remaining fighters… Of their whole fleet engaged in battle, only a small portion of them had survived. The captain’s fist smashed against metal; the picture of her back shaking. Her voice was quiet in the strangled air of silence as she demanded a report from the other rebels.

Matt was standing, both of his hands on the control panels, screens indicating more loss than he could remember seeing… Only several flickering lights could be seen. So many gone, so little left.

His head hung low in front of the proof, in front of all the sacrificed lives. Had they won ? No. They merely lived it through. His fists were shaking as he gritted his teeth. The burden of the living, is to continue to move on. Stand and walk… While carrying the loss of those we love. Words Te-Osh had taught him years before.

_“What just happened ?”_

_“Good job, Keith !”_

Matt’s hollow eyes merged slowly back into focus… “Good job” ? …If only they knew. But they didn’t. No one really did. Ignorance really was bliss. He heard Keith’s quiet answer, telling them of Lotor’s intervention. The rebel officer could feel the taste of blood on his lips. Lifeless eyes rose up to the screen.

 

**“The quest for Freedom is won through sacrifice.”**

 

The words rang in his head. He squeezed his eyes closed, committing to memory the names, the faces he knew were aboard those ships that would never return. Searing in his mind their number. He heard an officer enumerating their loss, the gruff voice of Olia’s second in command now tired and void.

Matt took a deep breath and opened a channel of communication. He knew they were alright, but he still had to hear it.

“Pidge.” He started, voice darker than usual. He swallowed drily before speaking again. “... Katie, come in.”

_“Matt ? What happened, how did Lotor just get to us like-“_

“Are you guys alright ?”

 

He took no time to ask. Katie was his sister. His only little sister who was thrown in some intergalactic war at barely fifteen. And then, there was Voltron… The resistance’ last hope against tyranny.

 

_“Yeah, well… Alright might not be the right word, but we’re alive…”_

 

Matt could hear the voice of Lance as well as other Paladins commenting in turns. All left in different manners of disarray, he could imagine, they barely knew much more than Voltron did. However that didn’t diffuse the dark and grim looks of the rebel officers Matt could see around him… He felt the same, even though his own sister was part of Voltron, and even if all of his remaining energy was relieved to know her alive and safe for now. It still didn’t make the weight in his throat and guts budge.

Captain Olia inhaled deeply. They had been fighting this war way before Voltron awakened, way before the Paladins. They all knew loss for the sake of hope. It didn’t change when Voltron resurfaced. It still didn’t change now.

“Paladins. We will regroup on planet Olkarion with the remaining Rebel fighters.”

If her voice sounded colder and more curt than necessary, no one held it against her.

 

As soon as their ship touched land, Matt was out of the metal doors, no one had asked him where he was going. Captain Olia watched him run through the crowds of medics and fuming metal… She looked up to the sky, clear in the beaming sunlight.

Keep walking. Even if it means stepping on the corpses of your comrades. Move on, while carrying the weight of countless deaths.

 

It felt like an eternity before he finally spotted him. He knew he must have landed before they did, that galran fighter was a fast thing, even damaged as it was. The Paladins had yet to arrive, as they had instead returned to the Castle of Lions, with Lotor captive and his ship in tow. But when he did, it was the sight of his back, speaking to Ryner, as if nothing was wrong. When everything just was. Matt could see him, years ago, his frame much smaller, hands in his pockets and eyes always searching the skies. He could see him, on the roof of the abandoned observatory, silhouette drowning in the sea of stars… He could see him now, in the aftermath of a battle. He could see him… And his eyes as he decided his sacrifice meant more than his life did. As he cut the line to their communication. As his ship raced towards that godforsaken shield.

He choked as his feet carried him until suddenly, Keith turned and saw him approaching with no sign of slowing down. The alarm and fright in those eyes looked instantaneous. As if Keith hadn’t fully understood the impact of what had happened merely moments earlier, not until he saw Matt storming toward him. The only person who knew. The rebel officer’s jaw was tense from the force of keeping his teeth tightly locked, his arms rigid from the pressure in his fists. As the older walked towards him, expression guarded in a neutral mask, Keith looked to the side… His lips parted. Suddenly looking so, so small…

“Matt, I…“

Without a word, and without even giving him time to say anything, Matt grabbed him, uncaring for once if he was rough, if he was using too much force in the act. He grabbed Keith by the arm and yanked him to his chest. Keith’s eyes widened from the force of the impact, arms limp at his sides just as Matt’s came to embrace him in a strong hold.

He could feel Keith’s body curve into his, at first tense from shock, as the rebel officer held him tightly, bending forward so his head could rest against the other’s. His chest felt too tight for his own lungs, his heartbeat decelerating before crashing against his ribcage furiously. He was so small... Matt realised, brows furrowing further, Keith felt so small in his arms. Unbelievably so. He exhaled, almost shaking… And felt the body against his slowly release tension. With one arm encircling his body, keeping him close, his other hand tangled in dark locks of hair, he could feel the cold Marmoran suit covering Keith’s body, the pounding of his pulse while he embraced the smaller man… The short sigh of warm breath against his cheek as Keith almost went limp in his hold… But he was right there. He was alive.

“…Aren’t you going to lecture me…” The words were so softly spoken, barely murmured in Matt’s shoulders, his voice vulnerable.

It was probably meant to be lighter in tone than what Keith managed to say under his breath… His voice sounded wrung out. As if he finally allowed the weight of the battle to manifest in him. He was probably waiting for Matt to call him impulsive, a hothead, selfish for his stupid actions because no one could have known that crashing the ship against that shield would have really worked… But Matt knew. He wasn’t naïve. He knew… That all of these were easy to say, easy to blame on someone… After all was done.

The truth in war, and in battle, is that no one is able to predict the future, no one can say for sure that this or that solution is for the best. But despite it all, a choice has to be made, a decision has to be taken. A split of a second… Is all it takes to determine life or death. Victory… or Failure. It was easy to blame afterwards, once the outcome and the consequences were plain to see. But when confronted with the situation, they both knew… That a split of a second was all it took to weight a life against the last hope for Freedom, against the lives of many.

“I know why you did that… I understand why you did… And yet…”

His hands squeezed the younger man tighter against him… And yet… It did not erase the fear, nor did it ease the pain… People die in war. That was the irrefutable truth. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. People live, people die… While fighting on the front lines, gathering intel for Voltron, creating paths for a new era… Matt and Keith couldn’t be delusional to think that they were safe from death. Being members of the Blade of Marmora and the Rebel Forces, they both knew the sacrifices of those on the front lines. They all knew the risks, but still they fought. They chose to fight. Matt couldn’t lie to himself, or be hypocrite and demand that Keith stay out of danger… Their lives didn’t have the luxury of such clouded promises. He couldn’t blame Keith for doing what he did, for laying out his life even if just for a “maybe”. That “maybe” had been their only glimmer of hope. Because that had been the only solution they had in that situation. Had it not been for Lotor, then… Still, the fact that Keith might think that his sacrifice would be more useful than his life… That fact alone pained him so much he couldn't begin to explain it.

Matt closed his eyes, his breathing shaking. He felt hands slowly reaching up his back, hugging him back as Keith burrowed his face in the taller man’s shoulder, his breath hitching, almost strangled as his voice echoed only for them to hear…

“Matt… I’m sorry…” 

Matthew knew… That Keith wasn’t only apologising for worrying him, for giving him a scar that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. He was apologising because, if it had to be done again… If Keith had to choose again… His decision would be the same.

He could feel Keith’s hands gripping the fabric of his clothes on his back.

“…Sorry…”

Because this was the reality of their lives.

 

 

 

[ B e a m i n g   S u n l i g h t ]

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *spilling the drama kettle* So... Naxzela happened. Whoops.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Back from unplanned hiatus... Life happened)
> 
> This is where we officially enter Canon Divergence Land !

 

 

                   The following weeks after the battle of Naxzela made it clear that the Coalition was in dire need of reorganisation. Olkarion was established as the center of command for the majority of actions concerning supplies, medical assistance, and ship repairs. It was clear to all that their last battle left a significant dent in their resources, and the losses their army suffered were one of their greatest thus far. They needed time to regroup on Olkarion, to reorganise the remaining troops they had, and make a precise assessment of the repairs, and restocking required.

Keeping up moral within the Coalition and the armed forces was a colossal but necessary effort of which weight was balanced on a fragile thread. They needed to keep going, projecting high spirited speeches of freedom and of more victorious days to come on Coalition screens… When the truth was that their remaining troops were spread thin around the newly freed planets after the battle of Naxzela.

The liberation of these planets didn’t come in just one battle. Voltron was a light of justice and freedom, but there was still a lot to be done. The people there needed support. They needed rebuilding of their planets, oftentimes from scratch and in the ashes and ruins left by war. But they also needed to rebuild their sense of self. It was another type of battle, but a long and arduous one all the same.

Only a small portion of their available forces was left on Olkarion, waiting for reinforcements. While the mechanical repairs were underway, there was a critical need for medical supplies and rations. Fortunately, small teams of able bodied Rebel Fighters managed to split and fly to nearby planets of the Coalition who volunteered to help.

 

The few weeks spent on Olkarion were a shuffle of restocking, flying to get supplies, and helping around the camps. Captain Olia’s teams were to be dispatched to the other planets soon, to switch with the other teams stationed there.

The sun was setting when Matt was rechecking the inventory in a hangar after the last rations were transported to the camp when Olia approached him from behind.

Seeing as he was so focused, face illuminated by the orange pad and folded hand over his chin, he didn’t immediately sense her presence. The captain shook her head in an exasperated but still fond manner, obviously used to this, and tapped twice against the metal door of the hangar.

The younger man blinked and perked up, finally looking behind him.

“Woops, sorry captain, I didn’t hear you.” He hopped off of the large container he had been sitting on.

 _Of course not_ , Olia rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

“If one day I learn that this pad ate your eyes out I won’t even be surprised.” She scoffed. The high skies knew that this boy spent way too much time on this rectangular piece of tech. Said boy blinked at the comment before chuckling good naturedly while ruffling his already messy hair.

Getting to the subject of her visit, Olia crossed her arms.

“I’ve got news from the higher ups, about a change of situation concerning you.”

Matt’s facial expression had turned neutral as she spoke, but it remained still fairly relaxed, only the slight twitch in his eyes indicated that his brain had already started working thoughts around. His eyes focused back on his superior.

“…I take it that I’m not accompanying you to deliver rations and supplies to the liberated planets?”

Olia snickered. _Heh, smart kid._

“Correct.” She snapped her fingers in the air. “You’re to stay on Olkarion for now and oversee things until reinforcement arrives with captain Kerrig. They should be here in two days.”

Matt nodded, taking everything in stride but eyes still fixed on her, clearly waiting for her to add something, most likely the next part of his assignment.

Shortly after being taken into the Rebel forces, directly under Te-Osh’s wing, and joining Olia’s team later on, he was often put into positions of command of sort when Olia or Jyll, her second in command, were not around. It wasn’t something so unusual that Olia would purposely come talk to him one on one. Something else was happening.

That suspicion was further cemented when Olia smirked, all sharp teeth and amusement.

“There’s also something else.”

Oh, she was going to get a good kick out of this.

 

“You’re to be appointed as captain. Congratulations, kid.”

 

Silence took the space of the hangar as quickly as the words dropped.

The captain watched as the young man blinked once, then twice before his face literally lost all composure and soured in a split of a second, eyes wide, frown deep and jaw reaching for the floor. That grimace on his face was a piece of grotesque art to be seen for sure.

The only reason he probably didn’t curse was because his voice was thrown in a loop of unintelligible knots of sounds.

But well, _she_ didn’t refrain from cackling openly at the display. Open mouthed while grabbing her stomach and all.

“I beg your pardon, what the f-…Uhhh…” Matt coughed. “...Thank you? But no- I mean… _Why_?”

While most people would be elated by the news, the boy looked anything but pleased, as polite as he was trying to be about it. She wiped a fake tear at the corner or her eyes, still very much laughing at his face.

“‘Why’ what, kid?”

The last word was said almost mockingly. The first time she saw him, he was barely bigger than her, looking skittish, all bones and skin. Referring to him as "kid" just kind of stayed, even years later when he clearly grew taller and matured. 

Still trying to be coherent, Matt sputtered, rubbing one of his hands against his face. His accumulated fatigue was starting to show.

“Well, first, why me of all people? Most officers would agree that I’m far too young and inexperienced for the position.”

His bewildered look now matching his hair, Olia chuckled some more before taking a breath. Well, that was a good laugh.

“Age doesn’t matter much, I’m sure you know.” She shrugged before looking back at him with a smile. “Te-Osh was about your age, if not younger when she became captain.”

Olia noticed Matt’s hand subconsciously hovering on his sheathed staff but said nothing about it. She continued, back straightening.

“As for the experience… You have more than enough, more than most actually. Be it communications, strategy, observation, or combat.”

Her stare turned harsher as she went on.

“Don’t forget that I didn’t get you on my team as a simple soldier. You’ve seen and went through things, boy. It might have scarred you,” She paused her eyes half a second on his left cheek before staring back up with an intensity of her own, “But it also shaped you. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Matt looked down, face solemn.

Even if ascending ranks gave him more freedom and authority, and supposedly some access to confidential information… It was also a chained leash in the name of loyalty to the armed forces. As far as confidential data was concerned, he _was_ captain Olia’s communications specialist, he also spied on the Galra empire for years… He attended strategy meetings regularly, there was literally little information that he wasn’t already aware of.

Loyalty meant he would have more responsibilities, to the people he will lead and to the cause they defended… And as much as he hated to think about it, it also meant that he wouldn’t have as much time nor freedom to search for his father.

Leading was a heavy weight of hard, and sometimes cruel responsibilities he wasn’t sure he wanted or was ready for. But he also knew that most people didn’t think they were ready for this.

He sighed audibly, body completely deflating and face falling into his hands, resigned. Olia barked a laugh in front of him.

“You can just honestly say you don’t want the job, kid! Well, not that it’d matter much anyway considering our situation and all!” She offered him a teasing smirk. Matt only groaned.

She was right, of course she was. Even if Naxzela hadn’t been enough to make a permanent damage in the Rebel Forces, it had still been consequent, one of their worst battles to date. They needed people to fill the ranks, but they also needed people to lead them.

Rising his face back up, he looked like a dead fish put on walking sticks.

“So…” He started, voice tired from the emotional rush, but suspicious none the less. “What’s the catch…?”

It wasn’t unheard of that the officers eligible to become captains were put through tests to prove themselves. He knew there was something the higher ups wanted to be done, and that something had to be done by Matt apparently.

“Your brain's fast as always!” She exclaimed before giving him yet another devious grin of sharp canines. She was entirely having too much fun with this for it to be a good thing.

“You just need to talk with a certain someone.”

The pull of sinking dread in his stomach was just telling enough. 

 

  
-

 

 

                    Wooden weapons clashed against one another, the sound traveling across the practically empty space of the outdoor platform. The place was quite isolated, situated on the roof of one of the towers not too far from the main towers of control in the capital of Olkarion. It was just far enough for it to remain peaceful, repeated strikes of wood against wood non-included. All in all, it became the perfect spot for a little work out session.

“So…”

A grunt, followed by a resounding clash.

“They chose to send _you_ to talk with Kolivan?” Keith asked, as he parried the strike of a staff with both hands on his training sword, then quickly evaded another thrust to his left shoulder. 

Matt and Keith were in the middle of their morning exercise, sparring with wooden training weapons kindly provided by the Olkari. A small team of Blades was stationed on Olkarion, some of them had been injured during the last battle and while recovering, the ones who could helped around the camp.

"Yeah. “talk” …” The older of the two grunted, swirling the staff around. The motion pushed Keith’s wooden blade back as it was struck down on him. But the younger wasn’t finished, he ducked and jumped up for an attack, using his weight.

Matt blocked the sword in front of him, both hands spread and steady on the staff.

“More like, to secure negotiations as a representative.” The long weapon swirled around to redirect the sword and push the assailant away.

This became a new thing between them, whenever they could, they trained together early in the morning. It became a sort of routine. A routine that funnily enough didn’t stop them from discussing other topics during it at times.

Keith didn’t get enough time to feel pity toward his friend when the wooden staff came back to strike down. He avoided the hit and jumped backwards.

 

He had found Matt slumped down on the ground earlier, literally looking like someone drowned his soul in a dark pool of doom and dried his empty corpse right there. He had debated on whether or not he should poke him with a stick to see if there would be a reaction but chose to just set his things next to his friend’s, eyebrow arched and questions all over his face.

Upon hearing the thud of Keith’s bag next to him, Matt, who had been facing away from Keith, let his head fall backwards limply to greet his friend with a cracked smile and very lifeless eyes. Looking like a sight out of Internet’s darker hours.

Needless to say, Keith had almost kicked him in the face.

It had been way too early for that kind of random creepy bullshit. But he soon learned the reason for Matt’s weird attitude. Which… didn't help him much to understand the other at that moment in time, because promotions were, more often than not, seen as being good things. Except, Matt had added after a long sigh, when you were required to fulfil some duties to prove your worth… Such as delicate negotiations with the Blade of Marmora. The Blade of Marmora, whom, even though they were cooperative with the Voltron Coalition, weren’t exactly the easiest bunch to convince (Keith would know…).  

 

And that basically led them to the situation they were in, Keith figured that sparring would at least keep Matt from dramatizing his death next. That only lasted until they took a short break to drink water.

If the subject of said negotiations was confidential, Matt wasn’t secretive about his apprehension of meeting the imposing persona that was Kolivan… He heard a low groan before the Rebel fighter officer started to enumerate every possible situation that could go wrong, in every and any reality.

“But what if I’m not prepared enough?! What if I forget how to enunciate properly? What if I speak the wrong language? Or if I say the wrong name…-What if there are tests?!”

And the list only got more and more ridiculous as the rebel officer rambled off.

“What if I’m not wearing pants?! Don’t laugh Keith, this is a serious matter! Who the hell decided to send one of the youngest officers to meet the leader of an elite organization which, other than gathering information, also specialises in sabotage and assassination?! And they sent ME as a representative?! How did they even get to that decision…- I bet Jyll’s metal arm that they all appointed me to avoid the task themselves, those old-”

At this point, Matt had his head in his hands, completely lost to the world around him until he registered the sound of Keith’s chuckles, the young Blade agent was sitting on the ground, stretching his legs.

“Who did you upset this time? Did you bomb their socks or something?”

The last part, accompanied by a sort of knowing smirk specific to Keith, was a jab at their days spent together at the Galaxy Garrison. One of the many pranks, or harmless experiments as Matt would put it, that had happened when they became friends.

Matt opened his mouth already ready to fire an answer in his defence, but stopped for a second, words stuck short on his tongue. His eyes showed the cloudy veil that only someone actively trying to remember something could show.

He blinked once, twice.

“As a matter of fact, I did not.” He announced, voice almost flat.

The rebel officer’s eyes squinted with that particular spark as he pointed a finger in Keith’s direction, an almost offended frown painted on his face at the other bringing that episode back.

“Also, that was one time and Professor Montgomery has no proof.”

Keith snickered, shaking his head as he stood and stretched his arms above his head. Even with his back turned to Matt, he still could hear the older mutter clearly.

“But now I kind of wish I did bomb their socks…”

And then a dramatic gasp that almost made him turn. Almost.

“Wait. What if I don’t bring the right data…- _What if I forget the data_?!”

Matt was back at pulling at his hair, and his eyes almost lost their focus so Keith decided that now was a good time as any to resume their exercise. He grabbed their training weapons and threw Matt his staff which, thankfully, he managed to catch before it hit him in the face.

 

-

 

Once they started again, both of their demeanours switched and reverted back to full focus. Their concentration was entirely on the exchange of blows.

As it turned out, Matt proved to be an outstanding sparring partner. This might have come as surprising to anyone who knew Matt as the lanky boy from years past.

There had been days in their lives when Keith could easily break his friend’s balance and pin him down on the training mats. That was back when they were at the Galaxy Garrison. Matt had once offered to join him in his work out, only to opt out all the other times afterwards, choosing to sit in a corner and work on his researches while Keith trained.

However, those days were far behind them, they were days from another time.

After years spent on the battlefront in the middle of some galactic war… It stood to reason that Matt would have developed some necessary survival skills, fighting skills amongst others. Even more so when his preferred weapon was a staff: a melee weapon, and that fact alone told Keith that he was used to close range combat. More than that, he knew Matt was an accomplished fighter. It showed in how he carried himself, just by watching him wield his weapon and after sparring with him several times.

Keith’s eyes observed the well corded muscles under the fabric of a long sleeved black shirt, the strong grip on the wooden staff and the firm stance of his current sparring partner.

Now, he knew for sure that it wouldn’t be that easy to pin him down to the ground.

Staffs were very difficult to fight against in a one on one situation. As a swordsman, he knew that he was at a disadvantage. First, because of the difference of range in attacks and guard. Second, a strike from a staff could hardly be completely blocked. Even with both hands, a sword would still cave in against the momentum. He had to actively parry, try to redirect the staff and strike back fast right behind.

Keith avoided a hit aimed at his middle. Reacting fast, he used his blade to meet and clash with the other end of the staff as it rotated and was swung down. He took the opportunity and moved closer in range, forcing Matt to take a couple of steps back to keep a safe perimeter of defence.

The best way to go was to throw his adversary off balance by coming in close, which was a risky move in itself.

Keith was used to fighting bigger opponents than himself, almost all of them being galran, they were usually at least twice his size and thrice his weight so Kolivan had him train in being fast and efficient. Keith made it so his agility and smaller physique became a strong point.

Each member of the Blade of Marmora was trained to be stealthy and precise, they were elite fighters. Even if they had different fighting styles, the mentality behind it was very much the same each time, it was something that had been ingrained in each and every one of them after all. Prioritize the efficiency of the mission, and survival. But the Rebel fighters, and Matt didn’t work like that.  

Matt was faster than expected at first, yet not quite as agile as Keith was so the younger had the upper hand there. But he knew that getting caught could be his undoing in this game, letting his guard down wasn’t an option. And above all, what made Matt a formidable opponent was that it was difficult to pinpoint his movements, to guess his reasoning behind his actions. Even when his strikes and attacks missed, Keith could see the other calm as ever, watching him with intent.

Keith noticed after the first time they had a match that he was probably analysing his reactions and making up strategies out of them. Which arm or foot Keith favoured, the reaction time he had on both sides, any pattern of actions, how many steps back to evade, how many to attack… Knowing Matt, Keith wouldn’t put this past him. The rebel officer was a cunning man behind that friendly smile. This proved to be true when Keith found himself cornered faster, multiple times afterwards.

And it made everything all the more thrilling.

It had been a while since Keith enjoyed training. Sparring with Zakki was cool, it increased his endurance and reflexes, no doubt about that (the man was a force of nature after all) … But he had to admit that it became a bit of a formal routine after some time. Plus, Keith was so used to fighting him that he could easily guess his step patterns and favourite attacks _in his sleep._ That made them a great team, but it made training a bit dull.

With Matt, he didn’t know what to expect. There was a lot of mysteries to uncover, little things to notice that could play a determining point in the end. And as entertaining as it was, it still kept him on his toes, pleasingly tense and aware. So incredibly aware of his surroundings, and of Matt himself.

That last part could get a bit too distracting if Keith was being honest…

 

During the couple of weeks spent on Olkarion, being with Matt and reverting back to their playful banters was awfully easy. So easy in fact, that he sometimes forgot where they stood in time. They worked out together in the morning, the rest of the day they would be busy either flying to get supplies, or helping around… They often ate their lunch together when they could, discussing about trivial things, diner was spent together with everyone, and then they would check around before meeting again to spend a calm evening. Sometimes talking about the past under the stars, sometimes in silence while one or another worked on something. Things felt almost… Normal. And “normal” really wasn’t the word Keith would use to describe his life. Yet, it was like nothing had changed between them, be it their interactions or the simplicity of their relationship…

Until he noticed that they did, if not change then shift. Some things, although they were subtle indicated a slight shift in how they acted around each other. 

The Matt left on Earth was a pacifist, a curious young man whose mind and spirit hungered for knowledge and discoveries... The Matt standing in front of Keith now, was a man who knew himself better, who was ready to unravel anything crucial about his opponent, calm and calculating behind the fierce spark in his gaze.

Keith wasn’t oblivious, nor in denial enough not to admit that Matt became an attractive man… And having that unwavering attention, the blatant scrutiny of intense eyes could be unsettling. He would think those thoughts completely misplaced in this setting if not for the sparkle of amusement dancing in his opponent’s gaze. 

…Further enhanced when he managed to make Keith lose his balance for the span of a second. The wooden blade was knocked out of his hands and up in the air with one heavy swing and twist of the staff. He felt a strong grip, secure and warm, and he could only curse to himself before he felt his body being pulled forward, effortlessly.

_‘Shit-‘_

The pillars and sky spun and rose around him, and all too quickly, Keith found himself on his back, laying on the ground, caged by a larger body cleverly placed to block and keep him down. He gasped, breath stuttering, eyes opening wide as he realized what happened. His sight swam and blinked back into focus to a radiant smile above him.

 

“Now I get why you found this fun back then.”

 

His hair tickled his face as a rhythmic pattern of breath fanned down on his skin. A breathless laugh and sparkling eyes still starring at Keith’s dumbfounded expression.

He just got pinned down to the ground by Matt. And almost so easily that Keith was half annoyed, but also half impressed. He did lose to Matt in their sparring practices several times before, the other was a skilled staff wielder used to combat after all, but literally thrown on the ground? Nope.

“Looks like it’s my win this time.”

The words stretched over Matt’s smile as it started to lean on the side of cocky. There was no betraying the breathless tone of his voice however. All of which was enough to draw a hint of a smirk on Keith’s bowed lips as he took a deep breath.

Realisation flashed in Matt’s eyes as to what was going to happen, but a second too late before a grunt was torn from his throat. Keith’s body twisted dangerously fast as he flipped their positions, using the small window of opportunity he had when Matt’s body had started to relax. He rose up above the older, straddling his waist, palms firm on the fabric of his shirt.

 Keith wasn’t one to go down so easily, and Matt should have seen this coming.

“Excuse me, you were saying…?”

The Blade agent smirked, chuckling as Matt groaned below him, one of his forearms over his eyes, his head thudding softly as he let it hit the ground under them.

“That was so not fair.”

If he didn’t know better, he’d bet that Matt was the younger one between them. He snickered.

“Life isn’t fair, Holt. Deal with it.” 

“Urgh, whatever. Let’s just say I’m dead and can now rest in peace.”

Both of them were breathing quite heavily, shoulders rising in the effort to appease the need for air. Yet, Keith still had the energy to poke fun at the mess of limbs below him.

“What are you even going to do when you meet Kolivan in two days?”

Another groan, another thud against the ground as Matt face-palmed.

“Please… _Please_ , don’t remind me, I’m getting nauseous just thinking about it again.”

Keith rolled his eyes at the rebel officer. He sat back slightly, form still hunched over his sparring partner.

“You’ll do just fine, or at least you won’t die from it.” He looked down with a nonchalant gaze, before another teasing smirk was painted on his lips as he added, “…Probably.”

The Rebel officer groaned once again as he tried to grovel and somehow be one with the earth. His answer was muffled as Matt tried to disappear in his hands.

“Well, thanks Keith. That totally helped…”

The dramatics somehow pulled another laugh from Keith, who felt more exhausted than he cared to show. He could feel the strain in his arms and thighs as he balanced his weight over Matt’s form. But it was a pleasant rush after a good work out.

It felt so easy, so effortless. Such light-hearted banters weren’t something he could have ever imagined having months ago. He had forgotten how weightless it felt to just go with the flow, to allow himself to relax. The past weeks made him realize that as disarming as it was, it was… Nice. After being on edge for so long, only trusting his instincts to survive… It felt like he was taking a large gulp of fresh air, like he was slowly learning how to breathe again.

When he blinked and glanced back down he saw Matt’s uncovered face observing him quietly. His skin and messy light brown hair were warmed by the colours of the sun above them… It took Keith a moment before the traces of his laughter left him. His thoughts faded further and further away the longer he stayed locked on Matt’s eyes.

There was something there, something unvoiced, shining on the edge of the golden rings surrounding the warm amber colour.

 Their chests rose up and down, in a deep and slow rhythm. Up and down again, lungs reaching for oxygen. The warmth that transpired between them was almost scorching, prickly. His muscles were buzzing from the effort and spent adrenaline, coming down from their high. The weight of his body slowly caught up to him, skin feverish against the blowing breeze now that they stayed idle. He could feel the heat radiating from Matt’s body below him, numbing his senses.

 Slowly, fingers brushed lightly against Keith’s skin, pushing dark locks of hair away from his face. It was the softest touch, barely even there, but Matt never stopped looking at him, at the silhouette drawn in the sky, bathing in the sun above him. Like he was a sight so captivating he couldn’t look away.  

 Everything around them swam in dull waters. He didn’t know why, didn’t want to question it now.

He felt pulled in, steadily, like the slip of control from exhaustion and adrenaline acted as an unhindered magnetism… Until his eyes zeroed in on the scar left below Matt’s cheekbone.

The hypnotising warmth turned into pressure enveloping his limbs. Keith supressed a pained exhale of air, stuck in his chest as he gritted his teeth.

The fog cleared. The lull of peacefulness faded and the soothing breeze turned cold around them.

He knew Matt could see it, could see the torn feelings battling in his eyes, and creeping on his face. He knew that he was probably frowning as his lips thinned against his locked jaw. He took a concealed breath of composure, remembering where they were and regaining awareness of their position. He was still straddling the rebel officer’s hips.

Matt took a quiet breath as he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds.

“Well, since I’ve found myself yet again thrown on the ground after all those years… Let’s go eat something, you owe me your dessert.”

 Keith turned his gaze away, obscured by black strands of hair.

“…Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? You know, since I won this round?”

“Nope. Give me your dessert, as a form of motivation for the days to come.”

Keith chuckled tiredly, shaking his head. He got up first, lending Matt a hand before they brushed the dust off of their clothes.

Just like that, Matt had dissipated the tension downing on them.

This sort of situation had occurred before. And once again, he brought them back to casual talks as they walked to their bags, gathering the training weapons on their way. They spoke about their respective schedules of the day as they drank their water, exchanging playful comments and some more dramatic antics, simple laughter.

But that certain weight was still anchored deep in Keith’s guts. Even as they talked freely, even as he laughed at Matt’s silly anecdotes about some representatives in Coalition’s meetings… That weight, that sinking feeling never left. It had happened before, and it never really faded completely. It only grew and festered, churning and looming over his thoughts each time.

It was that suffocating feeling of his ribcage closing in and in on his lungs when Matt carelessly lifted the end of his shirt to catch stray droplets of water on his jaw after he drank… Exposing a small part of his lower back to Keith.

Where his skin was marred with scars.

 

The first time he saw them was by chance. Matt had been needed right after their sparring practice for a meeting with captain Olia, and hastily changed while Keith was getting ready to shower. He had forgotten to take soap and went back to the main room just in time to see Matt slip his shirt on.

It only took a glimpse at them, but he knew. It was really no wonder that Matt was only ever seen in long sleeved, high collared shirts.

By the look of it, they were wide… And probably deep. The scars were aged, and they could hardly be physically painful now… Even with the small amount he could see, judging by the width and the regularity of the patterns, Keith could easily guess that they stretched across the broad of Matt’s back.

…And it took no grand amount of reflexion to figure out how they happened.

He was sitting on the bench where their bags were, head hanging low even as he could hear Matt’s voice next to him. His hands were rigid as they tightened into hard, clenched fists on his thighs.

They couldn’t just ignore the obvious much longer. He needed to tell him… He knew that. He wanted Matt to hear the words from his mouth but…

…Just one thing.

A part of him begged to have just _one_ thing that stayed unchanged and stable in his life.

 

Keith could feel acid burn on his tongue and in his veins.  

 

“Keith.” A low voice broke him out of his internal struggle.

 

The both of them perked up to see Zakki as he leaned on the gateway of the platform. Neither of them had noticed his arrival. He was fully dressed in his marmoran suit, except for his mask, arms crossed over his chest. The Blade studied his smaller partner’s face for a second before he spoke again.

 

“We need to leave.”

 

 

 

[ O n e  T h i n  T h r e a d ]

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp. The tea is brewing.


End file.
